Drinking patterns, health care utilization, and costs among HMO primary care patients

A survey of 8,034 primary care patients in a health maintenance organizatio n examined the relationship between alcohol consumption and health care cos ts and service use. Costs were estimated from service use data for I year b efore and 2 years after study enrollment. No strong, consistent relationshi ps were identified between multiple indicators of drinking patterns and eit her health care costs or service use. Compared with total costs among very light drinkers, former drinkers were higher, lifetime abstainers were simil ar, and persons in the higher drinking levels tended to have lower but not significantly different costs. Drinking patterns did not appear to be an im portant predictor of short-term health care costs or service use in this se tting. Further study of former drinkers is warranted to examine the role of alcohol-related illnesses in the decision to quit drinking.